In the article, a preview of which is posted on the New York Times Web site, the former Arkansas governor [Huckabee] is quoted as asking, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?”

The remark came after New York Times reporter Zev Chafets asked Huckabee whether he thought Mormonism was a religion or a cult. Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, said he thought it was the former but conceded he doesn’t “know much about it.” The article is to appear in Sunday’s paper.

Look, can’t we leave the man alone?

After all, he accepts the completely rational and demonstrable belief that God designed the universe and then had a virgin give birth to a slice of Himself so that He could sacrifice Himself to Himself to absolve His creation of the sins that resulted from the universe He designed with full knowledge of how it would all unfold.

Clearly, Huckabee is a man of science and reason, the very best example of an inquisitive mind.

Isn’t that enough?

All of this religious nonsense among men who want to be the leader of the free world is an insult to every enlightened step humanity has made. The calendar might say it’s the 21st century, but the American political system – and the bulk of the American electorate – has yet to join us (and I blame that for the lack of flying cars with laser cannons and weekend trips to the moon and fabulous Spandex jumpsuits and meals in a pill and teleporters and, uh, those cars with laser cannons again, dumb ol’ religious people).